Pan si dong

It starts with leggy ladies singing and dancing to Chinese opera music. Camera shots that maximize the view of the ladies bare legs are used frequently. Cut to the folks on the journey west as this is the third part of the tale. My copy is a VCD, video compact disk that is. Yes, they made VCDs for a few years between laser disks and DVDs. This format this time had no subtitles and I do not speak Chinese. It does not matter. Understanding the dialog is not necessary to follow the simple story line. Whatever happens visually is all that matters. Back to the travelers, I easily recognize Piggy, the Monk, and the Monkey King. They stop at a waterfall where the colorfully dressed girls are singing. Piggy joins in and then chases them to get a lot closer. Monkey fights the girls and the monk just gets captured. The fight sequences are very Chinese opera style. Some of this was filmed outdoors beyond the property line of Shaw Studios. Shaw preferred to film on a sound stage and the movie cuts, often abruptly and obviously, between outside and inside. The fight ends when the ladies start shooting spider webs out of their finger tips and escape. Does this movie hold up after 50 years? I can find only one reason for someone today to watch this movie. I am a hardcore Shaw Brothers movies fan. I watched this movie once to say I watched it. I doubt I will ever watch it again. If this was 1967 I would rate the movie just above average for the genre at 6 out of 10 stars.

CAVE OF SILKEN WEB (1967) is the third in the Hong Kong Shaw Bros. studio's series of fantasy films adapted from the classic Chinese literary work, "Journey to the West." This one focuses on one adventure in the story – the capture of the Tang Monk by the Seven Spider Sisters and the attempts to rescue him by Monkey, Pig and Sand. The sisters' aim is to gain eternal life by eating the monk's flesh, an act to which they devote an extremely lovely song-and-dance number. The Sisters are adorned in sexy, color-coded lingerie-style costumes and are portrayed by a line-up of stunning Shaw Bros. beauties including Liu Liang Hua, Angela Yu Chien and Helen Ma. (Angela has a spicy boudoir spider web scene.) Keeping it nice and simple, the film is focused entirely on the efforts of Monkey King and his partners to break through the lethal spider web surrounding the Sisters' cave. Once they gain access to the cave, one or more of the party are captured at various points as well. Sometimes the action involves one character transforming into another to trick the sisters and divide them. At one point Monkey transforms into Silver Sister and then has to convince the other sisters he's the real one when the real one shows up. This is a very funny scene made more so by the actress who has to play Silver Sister as channeled by the Monkey King.

The pre-digital special effects are all done via optical printer or on-stage mechanical means and are all quite effective. The small number of songs by the sisters and Pig are entertaining and well staged. The acting is quite good by all concerned. This was the third in a series of four Shaw Bros. adaptations of the Monkey King saga. The others were THE MONKEY KING GOES WEST (1966), PRINCESS IRON FAN (1966) and LAND OF MANY PERFUMES (1968). This one and IRON FAN are easily the best of the four, with lots of magical action, beautiful Shaw Bros. actresses, simple concise stories and a mix of studio sets and picturesque Taiwan locations.

At first I thought it was going to be a stupid, boring, fantasy flick, that would make no sense. Like Hurricane Sword. When I saw it had Monkey King in it, I realized what it was. I knew Monkey was a Staff Master, and had seen Beijing Opera perform it. That actor was Phenomenal!!! So, this movie, for 1967, was really good. A little ways into it, it reminded me of a Disney Musical, like Babes in Toyland, especially the stage sets, singing and dancing, and humor. All well done. The movie moves right along. Martial Arts scenes are OK.

Some special effects are just camera cuts, and some are super imposed, but some are really ahead of their time in 1967. The copy I saw was clear, and looked like it was filmed last week!!

All-in-all, an enjoyable movie with lots of different things, although I would NOT LET THE KIDS WATCH IT! It has some sexual situations, and adult language shall we say. So, it is PG-13.